To Each Her Own

Just to remind you:

Opening Reception this Saturday, October 11, from 6-8 p.m.

See you there!

Sharon Carson, Cathy Doocy, Debi Pendell

The works of these three artists look very different from one another: Carson’s bold blocks of color; Doocy’s thin washes and drips; Pendell’s sharp black symbols collaged onto loosely painted backgrounds. All are based on landscape, but none of them are landscape paintings in the traditional sense. None are totally abstract, yet all are abstracted. Sky, ground, trees, and clouds can be identified, but none are realistically depicted. That is not the interest of any of these three artists.

Although appearing so different in final form, the landscapes by Carson, Doocy and Pendell have a common impetus. All three artists love playing with the basic elements of art: line, shape, form, color, space, contrast, pattern, etc. That these elements create landscape is quite entirely secondary. Landscape serves them as an excuse to play around with drawing, painting, and collaging and a starting point to create a personal, idiosyncratic expression.

These artists express many similar ideas:

Sharon Carson:

“My main enjoyment as an artist is in the personal interpretation of the colors, rhythms and shapes found in nature. My oil paintings are based on the Berkshire landscape, but what I’m really interested in is pattern, connections, contrast, expressive line, pace, variety, and the impact of color. I begin by sketching outdoors, gathering ideas about my selected subject.  Later, in my studio, I work from my sketches, but allow personal creativity to overtake realism. By creating new color harmonies, simplifying and exaggerating, I discover a creative interpretation of my subject.”

Cathy Doocy:

“I invent landscapes from memory; subconscious visions that materialize on paper or canvas. A few brushstrokes, stains of color or smudges of charcoal can conjure up a field, a cloud, a day. I use the vernacular of the landscape as a method for exploring composition and color. My work is about the process of painting rather than a specific landscape; it is about illusion not representation; about drawing, not twigs and branches. I marvel at how easily a line can transform itself into a tree, a simple stain of blue becomes sky, and wind is created with a brushstroke.”

Debi Pendell:

“My work explores how we use symbols to communicate, while playing with the illusion of space. Landscape allows a deeper illusion of depth than other subject matter. I create my collage materials by using various mixed media techniques on paper – acrylic paints and gels, pencil, crayon, ink – which suggest their own symbolic possibilities: lines may suggest trees or grass, paint splotches become clouds, space begins to form. I then collage various alphabets, equations, tree and bird symbols, etc. to both create and confound illusionary space. Symbols out of context become abstract visual images with a beauty separate from their usual meaning, and can jolt the mind out of complacency. I layer these elements in a physical acrylic depth that is often mistaken for encaustic. Everything becomes symbols that viewers “read” and make meaning from – and see beauty in and get joy from. The longer you look, the more you see.”

It is both the similarities and the differences in their work that sparked the idea for this exhibit. Sharon Carson and Debi Pendell live at the Eclipse Mill Artist Lofts in North Adams MA. Cathy Doocy resides in Windsor CT. Pendell and Doocy met while they were both working on their Masters degrees at Wesleyan University in Middletown CT. All three are members of NAACO Gallery in North Adams.
We really would love to see you.
Till then,
Sharon, Cathy, and Debi